[SOLVED]Crontab fails to execute script

Question

Good morning.
I have tried to setup crontab to give my ati card a different clockspeed depending on the time of day. I can't get it to work properly. This is what I have done.
I have 3 scripts in my ~/bin folder for 3 different clocks. This is one example, I call this upclock.sh.
#!/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=:0
/usr/bin/aticonfig --odsc 895,300
If I execute it from the commandline, as a normal user, it works as expected and the clock is changed. This goes for all 3 scripts.
I add these to roots crontab like this:
15 23 * * * `DISPLAY=:0 /home/johan/bin/downclock.sh`
0 3 * * * `DISPLAY=:0 /home/johan/bin/midclock.sh`
0 7 * * * `DISPLAY=:0 /home/johan/bin/upclock.sh`
But, I get the following error mail when the times specified comes:
No protocol specified
/bin/sh: ERROR: command not found
Anyone got a hint on what to do to make it work? I have tried to remove the "DISPLAY=:0", with the same result.
Last edited by kveras (2011-06-28 12:40:14)

Answer 1

fukawi2 wrote:
15 23 * * * `DISPLAY=:0 /home/johan/bin/downclock.sh`
0 3 * * * `DISPLAY=:0 /home/johan/bin/midclock.sh`
0 7 * * * `DISPLAY=:0 /home/johan/bin/upclock.sh`
You don't want to use backticks around your commands. Start by removing them.
Oh, I picked those up from a similar crontab on the gentoo forums, don't know why. I removed them and I now get another message.
No protocol specified
ERROR - X needs to be running to perform ATI Overdrive(TM) commands
However, X is running, initiated by SLIM as normal user "johan".
I tried using the user johan's crontab instead:
15 23 * * * DISPLAY=:0 /home/johan/bin/downclock.sh
0 3 * * * DISPLAY=:0 /home/johan/bin/midclock.sh
0 7 * * * DISPLAY=:0 /home/johan/bin/upclock.sh
This works just fine!
Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.